The present invention relates to a system for the management of equipment, and particularly to the management of sports equipment. The invention identifies inventory, tracks inventory during the conversion from its status from inventory to valued asset, and provides a provenance for items of sports memorabilia.
Tracing its origins to the trading cards children would collect and trade of their favorite professional athletes, the sports memorabilia market is now a huge industry. Sports enthusiasts will pay large sums of money for items associated with their favorite teams and players. A visit to any professional sporting venue reveals stores selling replica jerseys. Labels sewn into the jerseys stating “Official” or “Authentic” are intended to convince the purchaser that the item is identical to the one worn by their favorite player. Even more valuable to a collector is an item actually worn or used in a game. Collectors today will pay much more for a jersey or other piece of equipment used in a game.
As in the antique industry, with sports memorabilia, the history of an item is important when calculating value. For example, a civil war era pistol is a valuable item to a collector. A civil war era pistol owned by U.S. Grant or Robert E. Lee would be worth considerably more. An item separate from such a pistol that establishes a history of ownership is called provenance. In the sports memorabilia industry provenance can enhance the value of an item. For example, if a player sets a record in a game, the jersey he wears while breaking that record will be valuable. After the game, some person must take possession of the jersey and deliver it to a prospective buyer with some assurance that the jersey is the one worn in the game. Because of the potential money at stake, there is incentive for dishonesty.
One of the main concerns for this industry is authenticity. A common method of authentication is to have the athlete sign an item for sale. According to information on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) website more than fifty percent of autographed memorabilia may be forged. The forged items are often provided with forged certificates of authenticity and photographs of the athlete signing a similar item. Unfortunately, unless the collector receives the item directly from the athlete there is often no way of being sure of authenticity.
A professional sports team is operated as a business. Identifying and exploiting new revenue sources is critical to success. It is also important to minimize expenses.
There is a need for a system which can account for every piece of equipment owned by a team and the use of that equipment. U.S. Pat. No. 6,195,006 (herein incorporated by reference) to Bowers et al. discloses an inventory system using RFID tags. This system can account for every piece of inventory and provide circulation status. U.S. Pat. No. 5,796,351 (herein incorporated by reference) to Yabuki discloses a system for providing information about exhibition objects. These systems could be adapted for use with the equipment used by a sports team but neither of these systems would be able to identify a piece of sports memorabilia and provide a record of its use in a game. There is a need for a system which can identify a piece of equipment used in a game which can subsequently be sold as a piece of sports memorabilia. There is a further need for a system which can provide the provenance of an item of sports memorabilia. The provenance provides a history of the item as well as authentication. This invention fills these needs.